Carnegie Foundation launches “Future of High School Network” with 24 innovative school systems across the country.

STANFORD, CA — June 18, 2025 — Today, the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching announced the launch of the Future of High School Network (FHS Network), a new initiative designed to catalyze learning, knowledge and impact to support a ‘new architecture’ for high school nationwide. The FHS Network brings together 24 school systems serving approximately 90,000 students, all committed to creating high schools that prepare students for success beyond graduation.

“For more than a century, the Carnegie Unit has defined the structure of American high schools with the conflation of seat time and learning,” said Dr. Timothy Knowles, President of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. “Today, we’re partnering with a fearless group of forward-leaning school systems across the country to imagine and instantiate education without the constraints of the Carnegie Unit. The Future of High School Network is about understanding and growing new models for the American high school—that set ambitious goals for students, offer meaningful, rigorous and engaging learning experiences, and use improved tools to measure and accelerate student progress.”

This effort is supported by leading national institutions, including the XQ Institute, William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, Walton Family Foundation, Youth Thriving Through Learning Fund, and Carnegie Corporation of New York as well as partners at the Educational Testing Service (ETS). Together, the network members will work to modernize current outdated systems and scale competency-based high school models designed to accelerate student engagement, achievement and success in postsecondary education and work.

The Network will also serve as a test bed to inform the Carnegie Foundation’s forthcoming National Research and Development Agenda—a comprehensive effort to define the research and development priorities needed to advance effective high school transformation across the country. Ongoing insights from participating systems will help identify the conditions necessary for innovative models to take root, sustain and scale in high schools nationwide.

“Too many high schools were built for a world that no longer exists,” said Diego Arambula, Vice President for Educational Transformation, Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching.“ This Network, in tandem with our National Research and Development Agenda, will focus on building and refining what comes next, together with communities, educators, and most importantly, students.”

The inaugural network represents leaders from public school districts and charter school networks across urban, suburban, and rural regions of the country:

• Akron Public Schools – Akron, OH
• Aldine Independent School District – Houston, TX
• Building 21 Network – Multiple locations (Philadelphia, PA)
• Cañon City Schools – Cañon City, CO
• California Area Schools – Coal Center, PA
• CAST Schools – Multiple locations (San Antonio, TX)
• Concord Community Schools – Elkhart, IN
• Crosstown High School – Memphis, TN
• Ednovate – Multiple locations (Los Angeles, CA)
• Eastern Hancock Schools – Charlottesville, IN
• Grand Rapids Museum High School – Grand Rapids, MI
• Henrico County Public Schools – Henrico, VA

Summit Public Schools – Multiple locations (Seattle, WA)

Liberty Public Schools – Liberty, MO

Mooresville Graded School District – Mooresville, NC

New York City Public Schools – New York, NY

Northeast Academy for Aerospace and Advanced Technologies – Elizabeth City, NC

Northern Cass School District – Hunter, ND

Piper Unified School District – Kansas City, KS

Portage School of Leaders – South Bend, IN

Purdue Polytechnic High Schools – Indianapolis, IN

Roanoke County Public Schools – Roanoke, VA

Rural Alliance Zone – Multiple locations (Randolph County, IN)

Springfield Empowerment Zone – Springfield, MA

Listen to the Podcast

How do we measure learning? It’s a question that challenges educators, as a rapidly changing landscape keeps everyone scrambling to catch up with evolving technologies, ever-expanding content, and the need to blend real-world experiences with tried-and-true curriculum. For over 100 years, part of the answer to that question has been the Carnegie Unit, a measurement that represents time spent learning a subject. And now, the vice president for educational transformation at the Carnegie Foundation says that answer needs to change.

Diego Arambula joins host Morva McDonald for an in-depth look at how reliance on the Carnegie Unit has shaped education in this country, and why he believes a massive shift is needed to help unlock potential and expand educational access for the future. It’s the architecture of schooling that needs an overhaul, he says, pointing to the idea that hours spent in class are currently equated to “learning.” Diego asks educators to examine things that aren’t being measured in credit hours: leadership and exploration outside of school hours and the development of skills, habits, and dispositions that allow real learning to take place.

Listen to the Podcast

In this special episode of the Higher Ed Geek Podcast, recorded on site at the 2025 SXSW EDU, Host Dustin Ramsdell speaks with Diego Arambula, vice president for Educational Transformation at the Carnegie Foundation.

Diego discusses how higher education must evolve to remain a powerful engine for economic opportunity — especially for students who are furthest from it. He unpacks the need to rethink degree structures, the role of digital transformation, and how institutions can better prepare students for career success. Tune in to hear how the Carnegie Foundation is leading efforts to reshape college classifications and workforce connections for the next generation of learners.

This session at SXSW EDU 2025, presented by the Walton Family Foundation, brought together Jamie Jutila, Sarah Navarro, Babak Mostaghimi, and Brooke Stafford-Brizard to discuss the future of high school education.

As the 21st century continued to reshape the world, the conversation emphasized the urgent need for high schools to evolve. Panelists explored how collaborations between educators and edtech innovators, the development of networks of innovative schools, and the expansion of competency-based instruction were transforming the student experience. The session highlighted the countless possibilities for a more relevant and engaging high school education and showcased the efforts of changemakers leading this transformation.

Attendees gained insights into how changemakers were driving targeted efforts to rethink traditional education models, ensuring that high school students—regardless of background—were better prepared for success in college, career, and beyond.

AKRON, OHIO – Akron Public Schools (APS) will host the Carnegie Learning Leadership Network (Carnegie LLN) on March 5–7, 2024 to explore how secondary schools can better prepare their students for the future. Carnegie LLN school systems, including APS, are working together to discover innovative ways to provide students with learning experiences that are engaging, effective, and, ultimately, accelerate students’ social and economic mobility. Currently, the Carnegie LLN supports the leadership teams of 10 school districts from around the country to advance their transformational work and serve as models for school redesign in secondary education. Network members convene over the school year to learn together and explore how school districts can be set up to enable student learning both within and outside of the school walls. 

APS, a Ford Next Generation Learning Community, was selected to host the site visit because of their work in developing College and Career Academies of Akron, which allow every student the opportunity to earn industry credentials, transferable skills, State of Ohio Readiness Seals, and more to ensure postsecondary success. These Academies were formed using the Ford NGL framework to create small learning communities, center learning experiences around career themes, and engage businesses and local community members. This transformation has enabled students to explore career paths across multiple sectors, including healthcare operations, cybersecurity and network defense, energy and environmental protection, educational leadership, and more. This system-wide model in Akron was developed through a myriad of partnerships with businesses in the local community, from small “mom and pop” businesses to nonprofits and large organizations. Students engage in real-world learning and skill-building in an industry of their choice through a variety of research, internship, and mentorship experiences. The impact of the College and Career Academies has been dramatic, as evidenced by a rise in graduation rates across the district since their implementation in the fall of 2017. For instance, at North High School, the first APS high school to transform into the Academy model, graduation rates increased from 74.4% to 83.4% between the classes of 2018 and 2022. 

During this 3-day interactive learning experience, Carnegie LLN members will explore the College & Career Academies of Akron as they hear from students, school staff, district leaders, and business leaders. The goal of the visit is to create a bilateral learning experience focused on how to build structures to equip teachers and leaders with the mindset and skills to strengthen student agency, as well as to equip all students with the self-efficacy to navigate their futures. Visiting district leaders will have the opportunity to support the Akron leadership team by providing specific feedback and will gain valuable lessons to inform their own system transformation work. Carnegie LLN will be visiting during Akron in Action: A Ford NGL Community Experience, a three-day event to demonstrate how Akron Public Schools has mobilized the larger Akron community to build and sustain the College & Career Academies of Akron. Members of the Carnegie LLN will have the opportunity to participate in select activities of the Akron in Action event, in addition to the full Carnegie LLN site visit program.   

“We are grateful to the Carnegie Foundation for its support of Akron Public Schools College & Career Academies. It is indeed an honor to be part of the Carnegie Learning Leadership Network and to work collaboratively to enhance how we prepare students for the future,” said Dr. Michael Robinson, superintendent of Akron Public Schools.

“We are delighted to be visiting Akron Public Schools with the Carnegie Learning Leadership Network,” said Dr. Tinkhani Ushe White, lead of the Carnegie Learning Leadership Network. “We cannot wait to participate in this dynamic learning experience to explore the College & Career Academies of Akron and learn about the creation of this system-wide model, and how it continues to be sustained by local industry partnerships and community engagement.”

Carnegie Foundation President Timothy F.C. Knowles added, “We are exceptionally grateful to our colleagues at Akron Public Schools for hosting the Carnegie Learning Leadership Network. Akron is sharply focused on ensuring that every student has the opportunity to earn industry credentials and transferable skills for postsecondary success. That is something the nation can learn from.”

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About the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching

The mission of the Carnegie Foundation is to catalyze transformational change in education so that every student has the opportunity to live a healthy, dignified, and fulfilling life. Enacted by an act of Congress in 1906, the Foundation has a rich history of driving transformational change in the education sector, including the establishment of TIAA-CREF and the creation of the Education Testing Service, the GRE, Pell Grants, and the Carnegie Classifications for Higher Education.

About Akron Public Schools

Akron Public Schools (APS) enrolls more than 21,000 students and employs 3,000 teaching and non teaching professionals in Northeastern Ohio. The district, one of the state’s largest and most diverse, covers 62 square miles in a city of 195,000. APS educators are committed to rigorous teaching and learning, safe learning centers and community engagement to prepare young people to be well rounded and ready for the challenges of learning that follow in life. The goal of APS is to be the #1 urban school system in the United States. For more information about Akron Public Schools, visit AkronSchools.com. 

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Media Contact
Carnegie Foundation: Kito Cetrulo
Executive Team, Managing Director, Communications and Engagement
kcetrulo@carnegiefoundation.org

Akron Public Schools: Marsha Pohlman
Marketing Manager
mpohlman@apslearns.org

In April 2023, the Carnegie Foundation President, Dr. Timothy Knowles, detailed a visionary blueprint for the future of assessment at the Modernizing our Education System Summit, hosted by the Council of Chief State School Officers. 

In his remarks, Dr. Timothy Knowles encouraged state education leaders to consider strategies that move us beyond rote memorization and timed-based learning, placing focus on school ecosystems that motivate students to develop vital skills such as critical thinking, problem-solving, and decision-making. These transformative changes would also embrace and support the autonomy and varied life experiences of our young learners.

The foundations of Dr. Knowles’s remarks are anchored in our dynamic partnership with the Educational Testing Service (ETS). Together, we are working to create a comprehensive, scalable array of assessment and analytical tools that capture a wide spectrum of skills necessary for our nation’s students to succeed in K-12, postsecondary, and their future careers.